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The early morning light seeped into the window waking A.J. He jumped out of bed and rushed into the shower, he wanted to be first to breakfast today, and somehow he knew it would keep him from having to do the dishes yet again. Once showered and dressed he made his way downstairs to find Shelby setting the table.

“This is a surprise.” She spoke startled. “From last to first.” She smiled and beckoned for him to follow. “Please help me bring the food to the table.” She smiled warmly at him which did not put A.J. to ease like he was sure she intended it to. By the time he brought all the food to the table the other guys had made their way downstairs.

“What’s with you A.J.? Up and down here before everyone else? Did you even sleep?” The questions were fired at him from the others. He did not bring himself to answer but put a good size helping of eggs, bacon and potatoes on his plate and commenced eating. He finished before the others who took their time eating and chatting about the events last night. There was only one thing that made last night that pleasant for A.J. and he was not about to share her with the other guys. He took his plate into the kitchen, washed and dried his stuff before putting them away. He hurried outside and across the street hoping that he would be able to have some alone time with Allison before others arrived to help set up.

He was disappointed when he arrived at the building and did not see Allison anywhere. There were a couple other girls there working on changing the decorations slightly for the evening.

“Will you be helping us?” One of the girls, the girl that sat at his table the night before, came over and asked him.

“Do you need my help?” A.J. asked hoping beyond all hopes that the answer would be ‘no’ and he could go on his way searching for Allison.

“Now that you mention it, yes.” She smiled warmly reminding A.J. of someone that he could not place. “We need to move all the tables to the outside of the room. We are doing line dancing tonight and it would be easier if the floor was not at the back of the room.” She continued to talk to A.J. about what would be taking place that evening though he blocked most of the conversation. He wanted to finish helping so he could find Allison. He thought for sure she would be here today, wasn’t it supposed to be her job to help set-up for all of these things?

A thought struck him, “Tonight, it’s not Allison we are honoring is it?”

The girl laughed. “Widow Thompson? She’s the youngest, so she’s last. She was feeling ill this morning, John told us, so we don’t expect her to show up until tonight.”

A.J. nodded in response and kept working until Shelby came by to call him to lunch. He turned to leave and thought he saw Shelby giving the young girl that was talking to him the thumbs up sign. He sighed and figured his exhaustion was getting to him. He joined the others for simple sandwiches again.

“What have you guys been doing all day?” A.J. asked curious for the first time in awhile. Anything had to be better then having your ear talked off all morning.

“Well I got stuck with dish duty this morning, and for added pleasure I got to clean the bathroom.” Howie made a gagging noise. “You guys really are all disgusting and need to clean up after yourselves.”

Nick laughed at Howie. “The rest of us were working in some field trying to get it ready for new ownership.” Nick shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich.

“Whose farm will it be?” A.J. asked the others. They all shrugged but Brian chimed in one answer. “I think I heard John refer to it as the Thompson farm at one point but that’s all I was able to catch before duties were handed out.”

*****

Allison watched from her window as the boys returned to her fields. Her heart skipped a beat as she noticed A.J. had replaced the young blond boy. She sighed to herself and moved towards the bedroom to lie back down. She was not ill, but John had made sure she could not leave her house today. He had warned her, now she would have to show some restrain or risk being locked up all the rest of the week unable to help her plans come to fruition.